Imagine 600 young people who are about to finish  school and present their Class 12 project or play. Bring them together to celebrate the end of a special and very informing Waldorf education, which has given them a part of their biographies that has been similar, wherever they are from. We would like to celebrate them as human beings, with all their genius and potential highlighted in their class 12 projects, something they have created and shaped themselves during their last year in school.

As a framework, add the Goetheanum, which will be an exhibition space for the student’s class 12 projects and other artistic achievements. Imagine the building and it’s surrounding filled, alive and bubbling with presentations, exhibitions and class performances on the main stage!

What kind of society do you want to live in?

The heart of the Connect Conference is the meeting of young people who are at the point of entering society as independent human beings. We hope to create a space for them to imagine and practise how they want society to be like. We want to give them the opportunity to be responsible and active partners in shaping the Connect conference as a mirror image of society, where each of us is a contributor as well as a participant in all that we do! We want to encourage them to understand that each one of them is one of the most important parts of society!

 

Connect does not pretend to have all the answers to the questions people carry. Instead it is an environment in which the questions young people have can be asked freely and in which an overview can be achieved of the challenges we are faced with in society today.

 

The program consists of four main elements:

 

1. The class 12 project presentations in many different forms in the morning

 

2. The conversation spaces with the topics of society and the challenges we are faced with today.

 

3. The short and poignant lectures of Changemakers

 

4. The artistic and cultural contributions the participants are bringing with them!

 

The whole event is framed by a mayor exhibition of class 12 projects from all the classes participating through out the whole Goetheanum.

 

 

Why do this?

We firmly believe that in order to find a meaningful, healthy and sustainable position in society one needs to have an overview of today’s society as a whole.

To sustain a healthy and developable part of today’s society we need to pursue the work we do to the full, on bases of having a globalized worldview and the knowledge of what is in our reach to change.

In order to take on the responsibility we all have for our future, we need to strengthen ouselves inwardly, find the courage and begin to do something!

 

Being able to move from a macrocosmic view to a microcosmic view is essential in today’s globalized world. To understand that ones own actions can make the difference is a big step towards the empowerment that is necessary to make each of us a changemaker in this world, an active contributor to society.

Connect wants to raise awareness for the influence and relationship of each person and/or local reality and it’s global context it is a part of.

 

Connect wants to start building toward a globalization in which it is not the technical, financial or political progress that dictates the speed and the direction of our society, but the healthy human understanding and personal relationship to his/her local and global environment.

 

Through making a conscious picture of the situation our society is in we create opportunities for new ways of perceiving and pursuing our actions.

 

"Ultimately, we want to encourage investment into a shared reality as a microcosmic example of society as a whole."